Polar-optical-phonon contribution to the damping of the magnetophonon oscillations in multiple-quantum-well structures

Abstract

In the present article we report a theory on the polar-optical-phonon contribution to the damping of magnetophonon oscillations in multiple-quantum-well structures. The present theory is applied to calculate the magnetophonon-oscillation damping (MPOD) in the GaAs/${\mathrm{Al}}_{\mathrm{x}}$${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{x}}$As superlattice. Numerical results on the variations of the MPOD with the width of the quantum well, inter-quantum-well spacing, height of the quantum well, the magnetic field, the temperature, and the Landau-level number are presented near the magnetophonon resonance. The effect of the screening of the electron--polar-optical-phonon interaction on the decay rate (MPOD) is investigated in a Thomas-Fermi-type mean-field approximation. The polaron decay width (i.e., MPOD) is sensitive to quantum-well parameters and the screening of the electron--polar-optical-phonon interaction.